Sharon Close

Sharon Close is a single storey rear extension and full internal renovation of a 1960s house within a conservation area. The works opened up the existing layout and added a modest extension, small in area but large in effect, reworking how the house actually functions day to day.

All the windows and doors are bespoke timber joinery, including a purpose-built top-hung window above the kitchen bar, fitted with gas struts so it opens easily. The kitchen itself is based on units from a modest, well-known retailer, but bespoke touches, the handles, the sink, and the junctions where it meets the windows and flooring, give it a far more high-end finish than the base units alone would suggest. The same attention to detail continues elsewhere inside: a worktop built around an existing structural column rather than working around it, and timber flooring running through the hallway.

Glazed sliding doors and a timber pergola open the kitchen and dining space onto the garden, complete with a parrilla and a timber gate. The garden wall reuses the site's original concrete blocks alongside new ones chosen to match, carrying one of the scheme's original materials out into the new landscaping. Working within a conservation area added a layer of constraint to the planning process, which shaped the extension's form and materials as much as the brief did.